Internal Strife In BJD’s Bhubaneswar Unit: Party Discipline Broken By ‘Two Leaders’, Says Corporator Amaresh Jena

Bhubaneswar: The internal squabble among BJD leaders of Bhubaneswar seems to be far from over as corporator Amaresh Jena again came out in the open against “two senior leaders” of the party for targeting him and another leader.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday, Amaresh said he along with corporator Biranchi Narayan Mahasupakar have submitted their replies to the show cause notice served on them on September 30.

“Now that 15 days’ time given to us for replying to the notice has ended, I want to reiterate my earlier allegation against the two senior leaders of the party. We were issued notices for indiscipline. But we have mentioned the indiscipline committed by those leaders in our letters,” he said.

Amaresh said he has written in details about the torture and exploitation meted out to him and his supporters by the senior leaders for a long time. “The party’s image, particularly in Bhubaneswar, has been tarnished by these leaders. They think they call the shots in Bhubaneswar unit of the party by muzzling the voice of young leaders.

“I know that BJD president Naveen Patnaik will understand our standpoint. He (Naveen) is a strict leader against indiscipline. After going through our replies, he will definitely realise the ground realities and the activities of these leaders. Then it is upto him to take action,” he added.

On persistent queries by the journalists about the names of the two leaders, he said it was not worth mentioning as everybody knows about them. He was apparently referring to former minister Ashok Chandra Panda and another Bhubaneswar corporator.

It may be noted that the differences among senior leaders of BJD had come to fore even before the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Different pressure groups owing allegiance to senior leaders resorted to hectic lobbying for their respective candidates for party tickets at the time, causing major headache to the party leadership.

The internal strife did affect the party’s performance in the elections, exposing its weaknesses and diluting its perceived invincibility.

It further intensified during a meeting convened by the party president at its headquarters a week ago at Sankha Bhavan in Bhubaneswar to analyse the reasons behind BJD’s dismal show in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

A group of BJD workers, led by corporators Biranchi Naryan Mahasupakar and Amaresh Jena, targeted former minister Ashok Chandra Panda and accused him of having worked against the interests of the party. They even demanded disciplinary action by the party president against Panda, who lost the Ekamra-Bhubaneswar assembly polls to BJP’s Babu Singh. The BJD also lost the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha polls but won from the Bhubaneswar North and Central Bhubaneswar assembly seats.

Earlier, Amaresh had accused a BJD corporator of Bhubaneswar of attempting to create factionalism. A photograph of Amaresh, Biranchi Mahasupakar and Sangram Paikray holding a meeting with BJP MLA Babu Singh had added masala to the goings on, triggering speculation about the source of the leak. This exposed the intense Intra-party rival within the regional party.